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A DESCRIPTION 


OF THE 


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RAILROAD ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE 


ROCK FISH GAP, | 


IN 


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THE STATE OF VIRGINIA. 


Maximum Grade, 296 feet per mile, 
Least Radius of Curvature, 234 feet. 


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» By CHARLES ELLET, Jr., 


CIVIL ENGINEER. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
T. K. & P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS 
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ee ee SE O.U IN LsA LN SD © Pel Rea ic. 





A DESCRIPTION 


OF THE 


RAILROAD ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE 


AT 


ROCK FISH GAP, 


Piel OR VER GIN A, 





Maximum Grade, 296 feet per mile. 
Least Radius of Curvature, 234 feet. 





By CHARLES ELLET, Jr., 


CIVIL ENGINEER, 


PHILADELPHIA: 
Tike cae. COLLINS, PRINTERS 
1856. 





NOs Be 





SHOULD any reader think this account of the Mountain Top Track 
superfluous, it may be a sufficient excuse for its publication to inform 
him that until the success of the work had entirely justified its con- 
struction, its practicability was very generally doubted by the public. 

It may be an additional justification- to add, that the difficulties 
overcome in the location and working of the line, very much exceed 
those which have made the Austrian road over the Semmering famous 
throughout Europe, while they have confirmed the claim of the 
American locomotive, in climbing steep grades, to unrivalled pre- 


eminence. 
a 


No. 288 H Street, Washington, D. C., 
December 1, 1856. 


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THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 





Tue Mountain Top Track, which passes over the Blue 
Mountain in Virginia, is probably, in many particulars, 
the most remarkable railroad now in use; and, demon- 
strating as it does fully and practically the capability of 
the locomotive engine to traverse lofty mountains, and 
to introduce the benefits of the railroad system into re- 
gions which have been hitherto very generally considered 
inaccessible, the writer deems this road, constructed 
under his direction in opposition to considerable profes- 
sional and official resistance, now that its performance 
has vindicated the soundness of his opinion, deserving 
of a brief description. 

_ It was considered throughout the world a great. tri- 
umph when France, under the First Consul, had opened 
a road across the Alps, along which the artillery of Na- 
poleon might be dragged by horses into Italy. 

The Mountain Top Track, which is scarcely known 
out of the State of Virginia, proves, by its daily achieve- 
ments, that the Alps themselves may now be surmounted 
without tunnelling by the modern locomotive with its 


train. 


6 VERS MOURNED ACI OTP as aac 


In fact, the engines daily running on ‘this road, and 
drawing after them regular trains of forty or fifty tons 
of freight and passengers up grades rising at the rate 
of 296 feet per mile, and swinging their trains of eight 
wheel cars around curves of less than 300 feet radii, 
are capable of carrying the artillery and supplies of an 
army up the steepest slopes of the present road over the 
Simplon, and offering facilities to an invader that would 
have been deemed impossible a very short time ago. 

A brief account of this road is presented for the pur- 
pose of directing attention to one or two points which 
the writer conceives to be of much practical importance, 
and still greatly neglected in railroad construction. 

We should not regard mountainous regions as neces- 
sarily excluded from participation in all the comforts and 
conveniences due to the railroad, because they can only 
be reached by lines of very steep grade or very abrupt 
curvature. ‘The American locomotive can penetrate into 
the most retired valleys of Switzerland, and bring forth 
the products of their industry. Wherever men can go 
to cultivate the earth with profit, there the locomotive 
can follow to take away the produce of their toil. 

Companies are frequently deterred from prosecuting 
works which present serious physical obstacles, because 
they are unable to provide the means to overcome the 
difficulties in the precise mode set down in their plans. 
But, by departing temporarily, at difficult points, from 
their ultimate designs, they can almost always evade these 
impediments at small cost, whether they consist. of lofty 


mountains which must finally be tunnelled, or of deep 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 7 


ravines which must be bridged over or filled up. Steep 
grades and curves of short radii will serve to carry the 
track over the opposing difficulties, and often enable the 
road to produce a revenue which will permit the ultimate 
and sometimes the speedy perfection of the plan. 

There are now, and always, many railroads languishing 
for want of means to complete certain isolated heavy 
works, which might be easily evaded for a temporary pur- 
pose by high grades and short curves, that would delay 
the trains but a few minutes, and add a mere trifle to the 
ageregate cost of transportation, and yet permit the Com- 
pany to prolong its line, and work it advantageously until 
prepared with means to execute, and trade sufficient to 
justify, the cost of the permanent arrangement proposed. 

It will often be found that the mere interest on the cost 
of the permanent work that may be temporarily evaded, 
will alone be sufficient to pay for the construction of the 
temporary substitute; and often, too, that the substitute 
would serve to develop a business of which the growth 
would have been much retarded had the completion of 
the permanent work been waited for. 

Cases frequently occur, also, where the facilities offered — 
for the construction of the heavy work, by permitting 
the locomotive to go forward on a temporary track, would 
greatly reduce the aggregate cost and accelerate the com- 
pletion of the enterprise. 

These general views were fully and practically sustained 
by Mr. Latrobe, the able and distinguished engineer of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, when he passed his 


engines and trains over the mountains in anticipation of 


8 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


the completion of the Kingwood and Board Tree Tunnels. 
He did not permit hills or hollows to stand between 
his locomotives and the Ohio River; but surmounted the 
difficulties and carried his work forward, and accommo- 
dated the public wants, and satisfied the impatience of his 
company by a temporary but an adequate expedient. 
The writer, in face of energetic professional opposition, 
has successfully applied the same system in Virginia, and 
thinks its application may be judiciously extended to 
many other works where hopes long deferred may be 
speedily realized. He does not wish, however, to be 
understood to advocate such roads for temporary use only. 
On the contrary, he is convinced that there are many 
points where roads of very high grades—grades of 200, or, 
in extreme cases, more than 300 feet per mile—may be 


justifiably introduced for permanent use. 


OBJECT OF THE MOUNTAIN POPS Raw 


This track across the Blue Ridge was constructed by 
the Virginia Central Railroad Company for a temporary 
purpose. It forms a part of the great line in course of 
construction through Central Virginia, from Richmond to 
the Ohio, at the mouth of the Big Sandy River. 

The length of the entire route will be 430 miles; of 
which the Central Railroad Company controls 206 miles, 
extending from tidewater at Richmond to the town of 
Covington on Jackson’s River, and near the eastern base 
of the Alleghany Mountains. 

Of the 206 miles controlled by the Central Company, 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 9 


the State of Virginia, for reasons to which it is unneces- 
sary here to allude, undertook the construction of the 
17 miles embracing the passage of the Blue Ridge, and 
the tunnel which it had been decided should be formed 
through that mountain. 

For other reasons, which it is also unnecessary here to 
state, the progress: of the tunnel and the other work which 
the Commonwealth had assumed, was not as rapid as had 
been expected, and as the interests of the Central Com- 
pany demanded. That Company had completed its own 
road from Richmond, 107 miles, up to the assumed base 
of the Blue Ridge, where the State’s road commenced, 
and were also preparing for the rapid extension of their 
line westwardly beyond the mountain, leaving the gap 
which was under the control of the Commonwealth to be 
overcome by stages and teams. 

Such was the condition of things when, in April, 1853, 
the writer was appointed Chief Engineer of the Central 
Railroad Company. An examination of the condition of 
the work which had been put under his professional 
charge, and that of the State, which was essential both to 
the continuity and success of the other, satisfied his judg- 
ment that the prosperity of the entire interest involved 
required that the Blue Mountain should be crossed by 
the cars immediately, with a tunnel or without a tunnel. 

The work on the tunnel, including the preparatory 
surveys, had then been in progress over four years, and it 
was very obvious that nearly or quite three years more 
would be required, supposing the same rate of progress 
to be continued, for its completion. He so reported 


9 


~~ 


10 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


to the Directory at their first meeting after his appoint- 
ment, and advised them to authorize him to construct a 
temporary railroad across the mountain, to be worked by 
locomotive power, and to commence that undertaking 
forthwith. | 

The suggestion was approved. A ‘force was collected 
as expeditiously as possible, and the surveys were made 
and the general plans prepared before the contractors 
reached the ground with their men. 

The construction was commenced at a period when 
there was a most unusual demand for labor, and it was 
extremely difficult to procure an adequate supply. 

The mountain itself could furnish but little of any- 
thing needed, Large quantities of lumber were required 
to form tressels by which to bridge the six deep ravines 
indented in the slope of the mountain. But timber was 
scarce and difficult to procure. The material to be ex- 
cavated was stubborn, the greater portion being composed 
of rock. ‘The time required to complete the road and 
bring it into use was consequently prolonged. 

From the first breaking ground until the engines 


‘crossed the summit was seven months. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE ROAD. 


The Mountain Top Track crosses the summit of the 
Blue Ridge at Rock Fish Gap, where the elevation of 
the mountain is 1,885 feet above tide. The crest of the 
ridge is very narrow, and is passed on a curve of 300 
feet radius. 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. ll 


There is barely room for an engine with an ordinary 
train to stand on the summit, before the road slopes off, 
descending both towards the east and west, to the valleys 
on either side of the ridge. 


Western Srpr.—The length of the descent on the 
western side, from the summit to what is here assumed 
to be the foot of the mountain, is 10,650 feet, or 2,25 
miles. 

The track descends in this distance, on the west side, 
450 feet—or, at the average rate of one foot in 232 fect. 

The average grade on the western slope is, therefore, 
223), feet per mile. 

The maximum grade on the western slope is 5,°, feet 
in 100, or 279,85 feet per mile. 

On both sides of the mountain the ruling curves are 
described with a radius of 300 feet, on which the grade 
is 237,%, feet per mile. 

The excess of the maximum over the average grade is 
occasioned by the attempt to compensate, in the distribu- 
tion of the necessary ascent, for the effect of curvature. 
‘There was no experience to guide the writer in the arith-. 
metical determination of the influence of such curvature 
as it was necessary to introduce upon this road, and the 
proper diminution of the slope required on the curves to 
compensate for the increased traction which would there 
be due to the curves. On this point professional informa- 
tion is still very deficient, even for curves of ordinary 
radii, traversed by engines of common construction pro- 


pelled at the usual velocities of freight or passenger trains. 


lee THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


For such an anomalous line as the writer was about to 
construct, there was absolutely no guide; and his allow- 
ance was therefore almost entirely conjectural. 

When the road was first opened, it speedily appeared 
that the difference of 48 feet on the western side, and 58 
feet on the eastern side, between the grades on curves of 
300 feet radii and those on straight lines, was not suffi- 
cient to compensate for the increased traction due to such 
curvature. The velocity, with a constant supply of steam, 
was promptly retarded on passing from a straight line to 
a curve, and promptly accelerated again on passing from 
the curve to the straight line. 

But, after a little experience in the working of the 
road, it was found advisable to supply a small amount of 
grease to the flange of the engine by means of a sponge, 
saturated with oil, which, when needed, is kept in contact 
with the wheel by a spring. Since the use of the oil was 
introduced the difficulty of turning the curves has been 
so far diminished that it is no longer possible to deter- 
mine whether grades of 237,°, feet per mile on curves of 
300 feet radius, or grades of 296 feet per mile on straight 


lines, are traversed most rapidly by the engine. 


EASTERN S1pE.—But the more difficult portion of the 
work was on the eastern side of the mountain, where the 
ascent was greater, and the slope, in order to reach a cer- 
tain level, which became a necessary condition of the 
problem of location, was required to be greater, 

The length of the line of descent from the summit to 


the foot of the grade, is 12,500 feet, or 2,7, miles. 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 13 


The road descends in this distance 610 feet, or at the 
average rate of one foot in 20% feet. 

The average grade on the eastern slope is, therefore, 
257,4, feet per mile. 

The maximum grade on the eastern slope is 5,5, feet in 
100, or 295,58, feet per mile. 

This maximum grade is found in a continuous line of 
half a mile in length. 

The shortest radius of curvature on this side of the 
mountain was intended to be 300 feet; but in the con- 
struction of the work a more abrupt curve was introduced 
at one difficult point, in order to throw the track further 
into the hill and keep the embankment off a face of 
sloping and treacherous rock, At this ravine, which is 
found about half way down the mountain, the radius of 
curvature is only 234 feet, and the grade upon that 
curve is 237,°, feet per mile. 

The total length of the track from the foot of the 
mountain on the west side, across the summit, to the foot 
of the mountain on the east side, is 43°, miles. But, in 
consequence of delays which occurred in the construction 
of other parts of the Commonwealth’s road, it became 
necessary to extend the track 32 miles further, running 
it around unfinished cuts and embankments at four 
different points, so that the distance actually worked by 


the mountain engines is about eight miles. 


14 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES USED. 


This road was opened to the public in the spring of 
1854, and it has now, in the autumn of 1856, been in 
constant use for a period of more than 24 years. In all 
that time the admirable engines relied on to perform the 
extraordinary duties imposed upon them in the passage 
of this summit, have failed but once to make their regular 
trips. The mountain has been covered with deep snows 
for weeks in succession, and the cuts have been frequently 
filled for long periods many feet in depth with drifted 
snow: the ground has been covered with sleet and ice, 
and every impediment due to bad weather and inclement 
seasons has been encountered and successfully surmounted 
in working the track. 

During the last severe winter, when the travel upon 
all the railways of Virginia and the northern and west- 
ern States was interrupted, and, on many lines, for days 
in succession, the engines upon this mountain track, with 
the exception of the single day already specified, moved 
regularly forward and did their appointed work. In fact, 
during the space of 23 years that the road has been in 
use, they have only failed to take the mail through in this 
single instance, when the train was caught in a snow-drift 
near the summit of the mountain. 

These results are due, in a great degree, certainly, to 
the admirable adaptation of the engines employed to the 


service to be performed; but they are due, also, in no 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK, 15 


small degree to the skill and energy of the superintendent 
in immediate charge of the track and machinery. 

The locomotives mainly relied on for this severe duty 
were designed and constructed by the firm of M. W. 
Baldwin and Company of Philadelphia. The slight mo- 
difications introduced at the instance of the writer to 
adapt them better to the particular service to be performed 
in crossing the Blue Ridge, did not touch the working pro- 
portions or principle of the engines, the merits of which 
are due to the patentee, M. W. Baldwin, Esq. 

These engines are mounted on six wheels, all of which 
are drivers, and coupled, and 42 inches diameter. The 
wheels are set very close, so that the distance between 
the extreme points of contact of the wheels and the rail, 
of the front and rear drivers, is 9 feet 4 inches. This 
closeness of the wheels, of course, greatly reduces the 
difficulty of turning the short curves of the road. 

The diameter of the cylinders is 162 inches; and the 
length of the stroke 20 inches. 

To increase the adhesion, and, at the same time avoid 
the resistance of a tender, the engine carries its tank 
upon the boiler, and the footboard is lengthened out and 
provided with suspended side boxes, where a supply of 
fuel may be stored. By this means the weight of wood 
and water, instead of abstracting from the effective power 
of the engine, contributes to its adhesion and consequent 
ability to climb the mountain. 

The total weight of these engines is 55,000 pounds, or 
27 tons, when the boiler and tank are supplied with 


16 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


water, and fuel enough for a trip of eight miles is on 
board. 

The capacity of the tank is sufficient to hold 100 cubic 
feet of water, and it has storage room on top for 100 
cubic feet of wood, in addition to what may be carried 
in the side boxes and on the footboard. 

To enable the engines better to adapt themselves to 
the flexures of the road, the front and middle pair of 
drivers are held in position by wrought-iron beams, having 
cylindrical boxes in each end for the journal bearings, 
which beams vibrate on spherical pins fixed in the frame 
of the engine on each side and resting on the centres of 
the beams. The object of this arrangement is to form a 
truck, somewhat flexible, which enables the drivers more 
readily to traverse the curves of the road. 

There were three engines constructed expressly for this 
track, of which two answer to the description here given. 
The third engine was built by Mr. Joseph R. Anderson, 
of Richmond, and is an, excellent machine and capable 
of doing good service. Resting on eight wheels, and 
being more rigid than the others, it does not yield so 
easily to the very short curves of this track. It is there- 
fore kept on hand as a reserve engine, and is frequently 


employed to relieve the regular engines of the road. 


DUTIES AND SPEED OF THE ENGINES.—The writer has 
never permitted the power of the engines on this moun- 
tain road to be fully tested. The object has been to work 
the line regularly, economically, and, above all, safely ; 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. ey 


and these conditions are incompatible with experimental 
loads subjecting the machinery to severe strains. The 
regular daily service of each of the engines is to make 
four trips, of eight miles, over the mountain, drawing 
one eight-wheel baggage car together with two eight- 
wheel passenger cars, in each direction. 

In conveying freight, the regular train on the moun- 
tain is three of the eight-wheel house cars fully loaded, 
or four of them when empty or partly loaded. 

These three cars, when full, weigh with their loads 
from 40 to 43 tons. Sometimes, though rarely, when 
the business has been unusually heavy, the loads have 
exceeded 50 tons. 

With such trains the engines are stopped on the track, 
ascending or descending, and are started again, on the 
steepest grades, at the discretion of the engineer. 

Water, for the supply of the engines, has been found 
difficult to obtain on the mountain; and since the road 
was constructed a tank has been established on the east- 
ern slope, where the ascending engines stop daily on a 
erade of 280 feet per mile, and are there held by the 
brakes while the tank is being filled, and started again at 
the signal and without any difficulty. 

The ordinary speed of the engines, when loaded, is 74 
miles an hour on the ascending grades, and from 5% to 6 
miles an hour on the descent. 

Greater speed and larger loads might doubtless be per- 
mitted with success; but the policy has been to work the 
track with perfect safety, to risk nothing, and to obtain 
and hold the public confidence. 

3 


18 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


BRAKES, COUPLINGS, &c. 


In recommending the use of this anomalous track for 
the conveyance of passengers, the writer felt severely the 
great responsibility of his position, No care that his 
judgment and foresight could provide was neglected to 
secure the most perfect safety to those whose lives were 
intrusted in the hands of the Company and its agents. 

The rule was adopted that no car should be suffered 
to cross the mountain that did not possess a brake for 
every wheel, of power sufficient to clutch the wheel firmly 
and prevent its rotation. All fixtures by which the 
brakes might be acted upon by the engineer, and the 
power conveyed simultaneously to all the wheels through 
a common bar or chain, were rejected, because the giving 
way of this connecting bar would render all the brakes 
which were made dependent upon it powerless. 

The brakes were required to be inspected carefully at 
every trip by an experienced man, and to be in perfect 
order for service before the mountain engine could be 
attached to the train. 

The giving way of a coupling was another source of 
danger to be guarded against upon such grades; for, if 
the brakemen on the ascending train should be neglectful, 
and fail to apply their brakes when a coupling bar or bolt 
should break, the disengaged car might be carried down 
the grade. 

To guard against this danger, reliable couplings were 


provided for all the cars; and, for further security against 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 19 


the possibility of such an accident, two powerful tug chains 
were attached as extra couplings between the locomotive 
and the forward car, and also between each two separate 
cars, which are reserved couplings, coming into service only 
in case the regular coupling bar or its connections should 
part. ‘These guard chains are always attached as soon as 
the mountain engines, or “climbers,” as they are called, 
are put on. 

When the track is in good condition, the brakes of only 
two of the cars possess sufficient power to control and re- 
gulate the movement of the train—that is to say, they 
will hold back the two cars and the engine. When there 
are three: or more cars in the train, the brakes on the cars, 
of course, command the train so much the more easily. 

But the safety of the train is not dependent on the 
brakes of the cars. There is also a valve or air cock in 
the steam chest, under the control of the engineer. This 
air cock forms an independent brake, exclusively at the 
command of the engineer, and which can always be 
applied when the engine itself is in working ordey. 
The action of this power may be made ever so gradual, 
either slightly relieving the duty of the brakes on the 
cars, or bringing into play the entire power of the engine. 

The train is thus held in complete command. Yet no 
precaution is neglected to have all parts of the machinery 
always in effective condition—brakes, each and all, in 
perfect order, every man at his post, and a competent 
and vigilant superintendent over them to enforce discipline 
and command the train. 


20 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK, 


A supply of sand is not neglected; for, though the 
brakes completely control the train in ordinary weather, 
yet, when the cold is intense, and the track, wheels, and 
brakes are all covered with snow frozen into hard ice, 
they will not hold. Then, as usual, sand is applied in 
front of the forward drivers or in front of the middle 
drivers, as is, under the circumstances, most expedient; 
and the friction may be increased to whatever amount is 
necessary for the safety of the train. 

With the passenger trains, there is a man at the brake 
on every platform, who never leaves his post while on the 
mountain, whether the train be ascending or descending. 
For the freight trains, four brakemen are required to 
attend to the brakes of three cars, or five brakemen to 
those of four cars. 

Such tracks as this over the Blue Ridge are very dan- 
gerous under negligent or unskilful management. But 
with care to observe the rules prescribed, and to keep 
within the authorized loads and speed, they are quite as 
safe as, if they are not safer than ordinary railways worked 


with ordinary care. 


CURRENT EXPENSES OF THIS TRACK. 


The current expenses of maintaining and working this 
track are scarcely as great as might be expected from its 
anomalous and difficult character. 

The ordinary consumption of fuel by one of the moun- 
tain engines, ascending the eastern slope of the mountain, 


from the foot of Robinson’s Hollow to the summit—a 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK, 21 


distance of 2,°2, miles—in which an elevation of 660 feet 
iS overcome, and many curves of 300 feet radius are 
turned, is 42 cubic feet, or very nearly one-third of a cord. 
The total weight of the engine and train, or mass moved, 
is 70 tons. 

The cost of fuel is there $2 00 a cord. 

The fuel used in traversing the whole length of the 
track, from the Greenwood Station to the western base 
of the mountain, a distance of 8 miles, including both 
the ascent and descent of the mountain, is two-thirds of 
a cord, costing $1 33, exclusive of the cost of firing up. 

The total cost of working the two engines when mak- 


ing two round trips each per diem, is as follows:— 








2 Engineers, at $75 each per month ; : - $150 00 
6 Brakemen, “ 20 < uf 7 : we 120200 
2 ee Cy 20 i gs : . A 50 00 
2 Firemen, “ 25 Ue a : . : 50 00 
2 oe Lot Bly Patt 5 - : 35 00 
1 Machinist, “ 75 - “ : : : 75 00 
Wages of engine and train hands, per month : . $480 00 

Fuel, oil, &c., for two engines, per month, when making 
each four tripsaday . : : : - . 3800 00 
$830 00 


Annual locomotive expenses, $9,960. 


22 THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. 


MAINTENANCE OF THE ROAD. 


Salary of Superintendent, per annum ae . $1,200 00 
2 Section Masters, each $400 . 2 : A : 800 00 
12 Laborers (negroes), at $150 per annum ‘ . 1,800 00 
1 Laborer at wood station eae : : ; 150 00 
2 Watchmen at trestles, $240 . age : ; : 480 00 
1 Night Watch at terminus. : 5 4 : 565 00 


Annual Cost of Superintendence and Maintenance . 4,795 00 
Add Locomotive expenses : : : 3 - 9,960 00 


« 


Cost-of Maintaining and Working . : : . $14,755 00 
or, per mile per annum, $1,845. . 

To this total must be added, of course, the cost of re- 
pairing the locomotive engines and cars; and also the 
depreciation, properly due to this track, of the cars and 
engines and the track itself. 

The engines, when delivered to the Company, were all 
exceedingly substantial, and have needed but small cur- 
rent repairs beyond what the machinist of the track has 
been able to give to them and to the cars. No separate 
account has been or could be kept of the other repairs of 
the cars—the track being worked in connection with the 
road east and west of the mountain. 

DEPRECIATION is always a very important item of rail- 
road charges; but, while the machinery and track are 
comparatively new, any estimate of that item which 
might be here offered would be altogether speculative— 
while the object of this paper is to present only ascer- 


tained and reliable facts. 


THE MOUNTAIN TOP TRACK. AS 


The writer does not wish to close this brief description 
of a road which, though built for a temporary purpose 
only, he thinks is likely to exercise a material influence 
on many future works, without duly acknowledging his 
obligation to those gentlemen whose co-operation mate- 
rially aided in the rapid progress and great success of the 
work, 

To his principal assistant, Thomas 8. Isaac, he is in- 
debted for the skilful and accurate execution of his plans: 

To C. R. Mason and Wm. S. Carter, contractors, for 
their great energy and obliging promptitude in providing 
and applying their forces wherever needed to press for- 
ward the work: 

To Messrs. M. W. Baldwin & Co., of Philadelphia, for 
the excellent engines that work the road: and, finally, 

To George S. Netherland, superintendent of this track 
and machinery, for his prudence, carefulness and indefati- 
gable and intelligent personal attention to the mainte- 
nance of the way and the management of the transporta- 
tion across the mountain, 


No. 288 HI Street, Washington, D. C., 
Dee. 1, 1856. 

















